NATO - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance consists of 19 countries; the United States, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary . The group combines the armed forces of all the member states. With the European NATO Members' armies 2,833,110 soldiers and the North American's 1'460'000 troops, the combined count of 4'293'110 armed men and women constitutes one of the largest standing armies, under unified command. NATO was formed in 1949 by the North American and European victors of World War II. The initial mission to protect Western Europe from aggression has drastically changed. Currently NATO commands several military operations outside its geographical boundaries, including a major operation in Afghanistan. NATO is looking to expand and add Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia under its umbrella. Joining NATO and integrating the local military infrastructure into that of the security alliance is looked at as a mandatory pre-requisite for joining the European Union.

EU - The European Union consists of 25 states with a combined population of some 457 million individuals. The current members include Austria, Belgium, Britain, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. The alliance forms a large free trade and travel zone with a largely shared common currency. The cooperation includes other ambitious aspects such as the collective European defense outside of NATO and the formation of a common border police to prevent undocumented immigrants from entering this zone of prosperity. The European Union is expanding aggressively. Bulgaria and Romania are already scheduled to join the organization. Interestingly, once the new countries are approved for membership, the decisions to join the European Union is mainly taken by the people within the new countries themselves, through popular votes in a referendum.

OPEC - The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is a permanent, intergovernmental organization, created in 1960 to protect the interests of the major oil producers. The current members include Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Nigeria. The purpose of the organization is to limit supplies of fossil fuels to keep prices high. OPEC does not rely on geographic continuity or a common cultural tradition, but instead depends only on the financial interests of these diverse countries from South America, the Middle East and Africa to hold the organization together.

WORLD BANK - Conceived in 1944 the World Bank initially helped rebuild Europe after World War II. The Bank itself has become a Group, encompassing five closely associated development institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). These financial institutions have extended and regulated loans to many newly formed governments, especially in the former colonial world of the Americas, Africa and Asia. Many of these countries have been left heavily indebted to the World Bank, even if some previous corrupt governments misused the funds and are no longer in office. The countries of sub-Saharan Africa, which include 33 of the 41 countries classified as "highly indebted," now owe more than $350 billion in foreign debt. Some of these countries pay as much as 40 percent of their collective annual budgets just to cover the interest on the debt. In some cases the interest payment exceeds the amount allocated to health care and education combined. Many countries cannot meet such heavy financial obligations, this in return allows the World Bank to engage in social engineering on a massive scale. Some of its targets have been to commodify education and to commercialize and privatize national healthcare and resource systems. Consequently, the World Bank dictates education, health and commercial policy throughout what was much of the former colonial world. Often this has the result of drastically increasing the costs of basic needs to the people in the debtor countries. The Bank functions with little transparency and is criticized for being dominated in its decision-making by the richest countries. It's head office is located in Washington D.C.

IMF - The International Monetary Fund was founded alongside the World Bank and its major purpose has become the lending of money to member countries that cannot make loan payments to other international institutions including the World Bank. This money is only made available after the countries needing the loan have implemented drastic structural adjustment programs. Countries often repay their debts by dramatically cutting their social spending. It is often argued that IMF imposed privatizations and sales of government resources and assets benefits the wealthy elite, multinational corporations, and the IMF itself. The IMF has credits and loans outstanding to 89 countries for an amount of $96 billion. Although the IMF' has 184 member countries, at present there are only eight Executive Directors that represent individual countries: the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The Board is based at the IMF headquarters in Washington, D.C.

WTO - The World Trade Organization was codified in 1994 with intentions of serving as a forum for trade negotiations, as well as a mechanism for dispute settlement and currently counts 148 members. In 1996 the WTO announced rules that make the summaries and minutes of all WTO meetings classified documents which has raised the issue of transparency and back-room dealing. New members have to open their markets up and abide by the agreed to trading rules. Most recently the organization has been caught in a deadlock because of a failure of the richest countries to give ground to the poorest countries on vital issues such as farm subsidies and equal market access.

OECD - The Organization for Economic Development is a group of 30 member countries that combined produce and provide 2/3 of the world's goods and services. The focus of the OECD's has been predominantly to develop the wealth and standing of its own member countries. Now the OECD agrees to advise countries that decide to embrace the market economy and make the transition to capitalist systems. The OECD tries to adjusts global economic and social policies and to co-ordinate domestic and international trade.

BRITISH COMMONWEALTH - As the British Empire began to loose its colonies there was a need to organize the countries that formerly constituted the Empire. There are 54 members of the group, all of which recognize the English monarchy as the leader of the Commonwealth. It consists of 33 republics (such as India, the most populous member), five countries with their own national monarchies (such as Brunei Darussalam), and 16 constitutional monarchies with the sovereign of the United Kingdom also as their head of state (such as Canada and Australia). The Citizens of the Commonwealth nations make up 30% of the world's population.

RUSSIAN COMMONWEALTH - The Commonwealth of Independent States was formed following the dissolution of t he Soviet Union in 1991. The organization consists of the Russian Federation, Azerbaijan Republic, Republic of Armenia, Republic of Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Moldova, Republic of Tajikistan, Republic of Uzbekistan and Ukraine. The total geographical territory covered by the Commonwealth of Independent States is the largest of any regional organization with continuous borders.

NAFTA - The North American Free Trade accord was signed in 1992 by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The agreement establishes a vast free-trade zone in North America. NAFTA eliminates tariffs on the majority of goods produced by the signatory nations. Major industries that are affected by the accord include agriculture, automobile and textile manufacturing, often with the effect that factories are moved to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor and looser regulations. The pact clearly contains provisions for the inclusion of additional member nations.

OAS - The Organization of American States was created in 1948 and initially included the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Another 17 states have subsequently joined. The effort to unite the economies of the Western Hemisphere into a single free trade agreement has recently gained momentum and a preliminary agreement to include as many OAS members as possible into a NAFTA like treaty of common trade exists already.

GROUP OF 77 - For the first time in 1962 an attempt was made by newly independent African, Asian and South American countries to launch co-operation between developing countries "on the basis of mutual interest and respect for national sovereignty." These countries sought to establish their own independent identity as a group opposed to neo-colonialism by either the USSR or the United States. The organization aims at establishing economic and cultural links within the Southern hemisphere, while gaining collective bargaining power in negotiations with the North. The group has grown to include 133 members and is supplanted by new groups like the group of 21 (G21) that includes China, India and Brazil and is starting to wield substantial power.

ASEAN  -The Association of South East Asian Nations was established in 1967. The association cooperates actively towards progress and prosperity and comprises Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The ASEAN region now has a total population of about 500 million people and a total area of 4.5 million square kilometers.

THE ARAB LEAGUE - The 22-member Arab League was established in 1945 and counts Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen as its members. Recent inability to form a common policy on conflicts in the region has deepened rifts within the organization.

THE AFRICAN UNION - The African Union was formed in 2001 by transforming the 38-year-old Organization of African Unity (OAU). The 53 states that form the union are working on the setting of commercial standards and reducing trade barriers. The organization plans to create a Pan- African parliament, court of justice, peacekeeping force and central bank. The potential of this cooperative effort are enormous. The AU is headquartered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

UN - The United Nations officially came into existence in 1945, at the end of World War II, and currently counts 191 member countries. Although the UN's wide membership seems promising, the organization does not follow democratic principles. Out of all member nations only a select 15 constitute the Security Council at any time. Inside the Security Council only 5 countries, The United States, Britain, France, Russia and China hold permanent member status. Any of these five countries can veto any decision that the Security Council wants to take. Far from regulating and preventing violent conflicts and inequality this flawed mechanism has increased insecurity. The UN does engage in extremely beneficial humanitarian programs around the world through various branches and departments that could be put to efficient use under different circumstances. A recent disturbing development has seen the United States and Britain, ignoring the express reservations of other permanent members of the Security Council and attacking and occupying a sovereign state, that was a signatory to the UN charter. Drastic reform of the UN is necessary for the organization to retain its credibility.

These organizations represent the largest, richest and best-armed groupings. All influential members of these groups are either heads of states, business leaders, or people that have been directly appointed by them. The heads of the above mentioned organizations have already been factored into the total 4820 individuals with say.

The skewed minority rule has proven to be unacceptable and cruel to the great majority of people in the world. The powerful few clearly do not have everybody's best interest in mind yet. All of these individuals and groups can influence drastic positive change if they sincerely want to.